Washington homebuilders and realtors are praising a new law that would clarify what land is considered buildable under Growth Management Act (GMA) comprehensive plan updates—a move stakeholders say will help address housing inventory shortages across Washington.

This week, Nick Harper steps in for Shannon and talks to Clay White, LDC Inc., about the recently passed SB 5254 and what it will do for the housing industry.

Bellevue, Wash—July 7, 2017—Governor Jay Inslee yesterday signed into law Senate Bill 5254, ensuring adequacy of buildable lands and zoning in urban growth areas. The bill, sponsored by Senator Joe Fain (R-47th District), will improve the methodology and process by which local jurisdictions assess buildable lands.

The Legislature's $43.7 billion two-year budget—which took negotiations within hours of a partial state government shutdown—is signed, but some lawmakers haven't had quite enough brinkmanship for the year.

Until around 2007, McMansions mostly borrowed the forms of traditional architecture, producing vinyl Georgian estates and foam Mediterranean villas. But in the last 10 years, this has begun to change. We are witnessing the birth and the proliferation of modernist McMansions: McModerns.